Suction cleaners



June 14, 1966 1 E. SEGESMAN 3,255,480

SUCTION CLEANERS Filed Aug. 14, 1962 United States Patent O 3,255,480 SUCTION CLEANERS Louis E. Segesman, Canton, Ohio, assignor to The Hoover Company, North Canton, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Aug. 14, 1962, Ser. No. 216,787 1 Claim. (Cl. 15-327) The presentl invention relates to canister type suction cleaners and more particularly to an arrangement of subassemblies of the cleaner body and which are easily removably attached without disturing the suction creating device and the suction chamber.

An olbject of the invention is to provide a suction cleaner body including a base formed in at least two subassemiblies, one of which completely includes the suction creating means andthe dirt iilter in a suction pressure chamber while the other subassembly cooperates in forming the pressure exhaust passageway. Another object is to provide the foregoing suctuion cleaner with conduit 'means lfor conducting air under pressure into the exhaust passageway. A further object is to provide the suction cleaner with means to arrange electrical conductors in the suction chamber and the exhaust passageway. Still another object of the invention is to arrange cleaner parts at one end of the cleaner body for ready access to the electric switch. The dirt filter, the hose connection :to the filter and the hose connection to the blower opening. Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and drawing wherein:

FIGURE l i-s an exploded perspective view of the suction cleaner,

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of the suction cleaner with its appearance cover closed, and

FIGURE 3 is a broken section along the line 3-3 in FIGURE 2 showing the exhaust passageway.

The embodiment of the linvention herein disclosed comprises a body 9 having a base 10 and an enclosure or bulkhead 11 therefor on which is pivotally arranged an appearance cover 12. The cleaner is supported on suitable wheels 13.

Forming part of the base is a suction chamber subassembly 14 and a cooperating exhaust passageway subassembly 15. The casing 16 of the suctionsubassembly 14 includes an integrally formed bottom wall 17, upstanding front wall 18, oppositely disposed side walls 19 and 20, and a rear wall 21. Extending the length of the side wall 19 is a flange 22 projecting outwardly from the top 23 of the side wall 19 and terminating in an inverted substantially U-shaped bead 24 which extends peripherally along the upper edge of the remaining vertical walls 18, and 21.

The enclosure or bulkhead 11 of the ibase 10 cooperates with the casing 16 to provide a suction chamber 25. The enclosure 11 includes a platform 26 surrounded by a front wall 27, side w-alls 28 and 29 and a rear wall 30 and the marginal edge 31 of the enclosure 11 is secured to the at surface 32 of the bead 24 in airtight relation by a plurality of screws 33. The platform 26 is provided with an opening 34 which is closed by a chamber cover 35 suitably hinged in airtight relation on the upper surface of the platform 26. A suction air inlet 36 i-s provided in the chamber cover 35 and is adapted to receive one end of a suction cleaner hose provided at its opposite end with a surface cleaning nozzle in a manner well understood in the art. The front wall 27 of `the enclosure 11 has a marginal recess 37 through which the hose may extend from the suction air inlet 36. A latch 38 on the chamber cover 35 engages the defining edge 39 of the opening 34 to releasably lock the cover 35 to the platform 26. A suitable unshown gasket is arranged along the defining edge of the chamber opening 34 to insure ice an airtight seal with the chamber cover 35. The appearance closure 12 is pivotally mounted on the base rear wall 30 and when in closed position forms 'one wall 40 of the hose opening 37. l

Disposed in the suction chamber 25 i-s a bracket 41 having a bifurcated end 42 to receive a collar 43 of a dirt filter bag 44 to removably support the iilter in the chamber 25. The filter 44 has an opening 45 which is aligned with'the` suction air inlet 36 in the chamiber cover 35 when the latter is closed. Also `arranged in the suction chamber 25 is a suction creating motor-fan unit 46 having a suction air inlet at one end 47 and a high pressure air outlet 48 at the other end for discharge of the air under pressure. A bracket indicated generally at 49 secures the motor-fan unit 46 in the suction chamber 25.

In order to convey .thedischarged high pressure air from -the motor-fan unit 46 directly to the exterior of the suction chamber 25,' one end 50 of a liexible conduit 51 formed of plastic material is attached to the pressure discharge end 48 of the motor-fan unit 46 and the opposite end 52 of the conduit 51 is seated in a high pressure discharge opening 53 formed in the side wall 19 of the subassembly 14. The inner end 50 of the flexible conduit 51 is secured to the pressure outlet 48 of the motorfan unit 46 by an annular partially shown metal clamp 54 and the opposite end of the conduit is seated in airtight relation with the defining edge of .the discharge opening 53 by an expanding annular band 55 on the interior of the conduit.

The exhaust passageway subassembly 15 has a lbottom wall 56, side wall 57, rear wall portion 58 and a front wall portion 59. The upper marginal edge of the vertical walls is provided with a flange 60 which seats in the inverted U-shaped bead 24. The f-ront and rear vertical edges 61 and bottom edge 62 of the exhaust subassembly 15 seat'in rabbeted portions 63 on the front wall 18, rear wall 21 and on the bottom wall 17 of the suction chamber subassembly 14. The exhaust passageway subassembly 15 is removably secured to the suction chamber subassemibly 14 by two screws 64 extending through the bott-om wall 56 and threaded in brackets 65 attached to the casing side wall 19. It will be noted that 4the heads 66 of the screws are positioned outside of tbe body 9 so that the subassemblies 14 and 15 are easily removably attached by using a screw driver applied exteriorlly of .the cleaner body 9. The sulbassemblies 14 and 15 when attached by the screws 64 provide an exhaust passageway 67 defined by the side wall 19 and iiange 22 of the suction subassembly 14 and lby the walls 56, 57, 58 and 59 of the exhaust subassembly 15.

An air exhaust outlet 68 is provided in the shaded recessed portion of the vertical wall 57 adjacent the front wall 59 of the subassembly 15 and is covered by a diffuser plate 69 suitably hinged on the wall 57. In FIG- URE 2 an elbow 70 of a partially shown hose 71 is connecte-d to the exhaust outlet 68 for cleaning surfaces by blowing air thereover. Secured to the interior surface of the side -wal-l 57 is sound absorbing material 72 which extends from the rear wall 58 to the exhaust outlet 68 to reduce the noise caused by the passage of air under high pressure Ithrough the passageway 67 and then out through the outlet 68.

The electrical wiring for the suction creating motor-fan unit 46 comprises a service cord 73 having a terminal plug 74 and the cord extends lthrough a grommet 75 in the platform 26 into Athe suction chamber 25. The cord 73 is connected to leads 76 and 77 iby clips 78, the lead 76 being suitably joined to the motor-fan unit from which extends another lead 79 joined by a clip 80 to a final lead 81. The lleads 77 and 81 are connected to the switch 82 which is retained in an opening 83 in the front wall 59 by a suitable nut 84. The leads 77 and 79 extend from the suction chamber 25 where a low air pressure exits through two openings 85 in the wall of the flexible conduit 51 within which the air is under high pressure. In order to .provide an airtight seal between the openings 85 and the leads 77-79, the latter are of larger diameter than the openings 85 to completely fill the openings in the plastic conduit 51. The leads 77-79 project from the pressure conduit 51 into Vthe exhaust air passageway 67.

The `foregoing wiring and arrangement of the subassernblies 14 and 15 allow the switch leads 7'7-81 to be connected to the switch 82 in the front wall 59, and the lead 81 connected by the clip 80 to the lead 79 prior to securing the exhaust passageway subassem-bly 15 to the suction chamber subassembly by the two screws 64. An extra length of wire in the leads from the motor-fan unit 46 can easily be accommodated in the elongated exhaust passageway 67 which extends throughout the length of the base 10.

When it is desire-d toclean surfaces by suction, the hose 71 is connected to the suction air inlet 36 in the chamber cover 35 and the hose extends through the hose opening 37 when the cover 12 is closed. The operator then moves the lever of the switch 8-2 to its On position to energize the motor-fan unit 46 which creates suction within the chamber 25 and also through the hose 71 to its nozzle. The dirt entering the nozzle is conducted through the 4hose 71 and deposited in the bag 44 which removes the dirt from the air and the llatter enters the low pressure air inlet 47 of the motor-fan unit 46. The filtered air is expelled under high air ypressure from the motor-fan outlet 48 into the exible conduit 51 which conveys the air under pre-ssure into the exhaust passageway 67 lfrom which it is discharged through the diffuser 69. The sound `absorbing material 72 extending substantially throughout the length of the cleaner side wall 57 greatly reduces the noise of cleaner operation.

It it is desired to clean surfaces by air under pressure, the diffuser 69 is pivoted to its opened position and the hose elbow 70 inserte-d in the opening 68, as shown in FIGURE 2.

In order to remove the filter bag 44, the chamber cover 35 is opened and the operator inserts her hand through the opening 34, grasps the bag collar 43 and slides it 01T the bifurcated support 42 for easy removal from the suction chamber 25. A new bag can then be mounted on the support 41.

It will be noted from the foregoing that the motor-fan unit 46 is disposed completely within the suction chamber 25 yand the air under high pressure is discharged through the lconduit 51 into the exhaust passageway 67 forme-d in part by the separate subassembly 15. Thus, the suction subassembly 14 can be formed integrally in a single unit such as a metal stamping and it is unnecessary to provide airtight joints between the exhaust subassernbly 15 and the suction subasse-rnbly 14 since the air from the subassembly 15 cannot leak into the suction subassemb-ly 14.

All of the cleaner parts which require attention by the operator are placed along or adjacent the front wall of the cleaner body for convenient operation as is evident from the arrangement of the exhaust opening 68 for .connection of the hose to clean surfaces by -air under high pressure, the switch 82 for energizing the motor-fan unit 46, the suction air inlet 36 for connection of the hose 71, an-d the cover 35 for access to the chamber 25 through the opening 34- lto replace the lter bag 44.

While I have shown and described but one embodiment of my invention, it is understood that this embodiment is to be taken as illustrative only and n-ot in a limiting sense. I do not wish to be limited to the particular structure shown and described but to include all equivalent variations except `as limited by the scope of the claims.

I claim:

In a suction cleaner, a body having a base and an enclosure therefor, a suction air inlet in said body, said base including first and second subassemblies, said first subassembly having a unitary bottom wall and an u ystanding unitary peripheral wall, said enclosu-re cooperating with said unitary peripheral and bottom walls of said first subassembly to define a suction chamber, a motor-fan unit disposed Icompletely in said suction chamber and having a low air pressure inlet and a high air pressure outlet within said suction chamber, said motoran unit when operating creating low pressure in said suction chamber, means defining a high press-ure air discharge opening in said peripheral wall toward one end of said first subaissembly, conduit means disposed cornpletely in said :suction chamber and connected to said high pressure air outlet of said Imotor-fan unit and to sai-d high pres-sure discharge opening in said rst subassembly for conveying air under pressure from said suction chamber to said high pressure air discharge opening, said conduit means being in said suction chamber is thus subjected on its exterior surface to the suction pressure in said suction chamber and subjected on its interior surface to the high air pressure discharged from said motorfan unit, said second subassembly removably secured to the exterior of said first subassembly and cooperating therewith to define an elongated exhaust passageway from said high pressure discharge opening, means in said second subassembly defining an exhaust outlet spaced from said discharge opening for the escape to 'atmosphere of the discharged high pressure air, electric conductor means in said suction chamber for said :motor-fan unit, said conductor means extending from said suction chamber through a wall of said conduit means into the latter and through said high pressure air disch-arge opening in said first subassembly and along said exhaust passageway of said second subassembly, and switch means mounted on said second subassembly and connected to said electric conductor means to control operation of said motor fan unit.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,155,669 4/1939 Lofgren 55-276 X 2,375,331 5/1945 Taylor 15-330 2,507,672 5/1950 McAllister 55-334- 2,714,426 8/1955 White 55-305 2,741,329 4/1956 Cherry 55-410 X 2,745,512 5/1956 Osborn 55-368 2,766,842 10/1956 Hurd 55-378 2,780,826 2/1957 Coons et al. '15--330 X ROBERT F. BURNETT, Primary Examiner.

HARRY B. THORNTON, Examiner. 

